U.S. WNT take on Mexico in Semis

The U.S. WNT play host to Mexico in a CONCACAF Championship semi-final at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania on Friday at 7:30 PM.

Amy Rodriguez got the game’s opener and the winning goal in their 4-0 victory over Mexico in September. (ISI Photos/Brad Smith)

The winner of Friday’s match will advance to the final of the regional tournament and qualify for next summer’s World Cup in Canada, while the defeated team takes on the loser of the other semi-final in a third-place match.

This match also serves as a rematch of the 2010 CONCACAF Championship semi-final, in which Mexico achieved their most famous result by defeating the Americans 2-1.

However, that is Mexico’s sole victory over the U.S. As recently as mid-September the CONCACAF foes met, which saw the U.S. dominate in 8-0 and 4-0 wins.

The U.S. reached this stage after narrowly defeating Trinidad and Tobago and convincingly overcoming Guatemala and Haiti in the group stage which saw Abby Wambach score three goals to pass Mia Hamm on the all-time CONCACAF Championship scorers, leaving her four goals from passing Michelle Akers (17 goals).

Mexico reaches the semi-finals for the fifth time after rebounding from a 1-0 loss to Costa Rica to defeat Martinique and Jamaica. Mexico are the highest scoring team in the CONCACAF Championship (13 goals) and are equal with the U.S. with shots (73).

The U.S. have just too much firing power for Mexico and should ease through.(ISI Photos/Michael Janosz)

The U.S. are favorites to win the event to qualify for their seventh straight World Cup, while Mexico have qualified twice before (1999 and 2011).

Costa Rica face off against Trinidad and Tobago in the other semi-final. The winners of the semi-finals and the third place match automatically qualify for next summer’s event, leaving the fourth place team to play Ecuador in a two-legged playoff to determine who will join the other 23 nations in Canada for the World Cup.

Despite being having only one win in thirty-one games versus the Americans, the Mexico can draw inspiration from that one win and will look to recreate the upset on Friday night.